Spinster Ever After (The Spinster Chronicles #7) - Rebecca Connolly Page 0,74

patient, but he was no saint. He was polite, but he was no paragon. He was clever, but he was no scholar. He was a gentleman, but he was anything but stuffy.

He might not have been perfect by Society’s standards, yet he was perfect according to Charlotte.

What was more, she liked him.

It was astonishing how free she felt in having accepted his courtship. Liberated, really. In a simple answer, she was able to relate to him that she had enough romantic interest to wish to know him on a deeper level. She was able to express her wishes, which Society usually discouraged, not that Charlotte obeyed. She was able to claim the man as hers, for the time being, and the more possessive side of her thrilled with that victory. For however long it lasted, Jonathan Riley was hers.

Was it so very selfish to have that delight her?

“Did he meet with your father?” Izzy asked as Georgie began pouring tea for them all and handing cups around. “How did it happen?”

Charlotte smiled at her, bringing herself back to the moment. “He came for supper and asked to court me between courses.”

“While you and Charles were sitting there?” Grace laughed. “Rather unconventional, but I like him more for it.”

“So do I,” Charlotte admitted, wrinkling her nose in a faint giggle. “I had an inkling he would, he’d hinted around it on our last walk of Hyde Park, so it wasn’t a terrible surprise.”

Elinor shook her head, taking her teacup and saucer from Georgie, leaning forward, and plucking a biscuit from the tray. “How did your father respond to that?”

The memory made Charlotte grin once more. “It’s my father, Elinor. He looked at Jonathan, looked at me, drummed his fingers on the table, then asked if I wanted him to say yes.”

Snickers and giggles resounded in the drawing room, and Charlotte sipped her tea as they did so, feeling quite satisfied with herself. There was something quite gratifying about knowing that a man she was intrigued by, that she was growing to like and admire very much, felt the same way about her. She hadn’t had the pleasure of mutual affection in her life, not in the romantic sense, so this first adventure was full of surprises and secret pleasures.

Whether she and Jonathan would wind up making matrimonial vows with each other remained to be seen, and she refused to anticipate any such thing for fear of ruining things. She was determined to enjoy each moment of this courtship as it happened, not wish for more or for different. She may only get the one courtship, and would it be so terrible to be ignorant as to what it could have been?

Sudden flashes of memory and sensation lit her mind, and her lips tingled as images of Michael’s kiss replayed. She could recall the taste of him on her tongue, the feel of his hands against her cheeks, the heat of his body pressed to hers. Her lungs began to burn as they had then, her head swam and her fingers itched to cling further, to pull him in, to drag them both into the spirals of anticipation coiling in her.

Charlotte cleared her throat, forcing herself to sip her tea again, if only to wash the taste of him out.

Would kissing Jonathan be a more delicious experience than that?

Surely it would be, given how different her emotions were with him. Perhaps he would be a gentler sort, his kisses more ticklish, or his attentions more focused. Perhaps he would prefer to let her have her way, generously accepting whatever she saw fit. Perhaps he would prove a masterful tutor, and the pair of them would have the sort of romance to rival and overshadow all loves of tales, myths, or poems. She could have a child every year or so just to prove to the world that their affections were rather histrionic, and wouldn’t that shock Society?

The more she thought on the topic, the more amusing it became, yet the anticipation of it seemed rather pale compared to the entertainment of it.

That could not be the way it was supposed to be.

But then, their courtship was new. The more passionate aspects would develop as their mutual admiration did.

How could any woman not be passionate where Jonathan Riley was concerned upon growing closer to him?

“What does Michael say to all of this?” Izzy asked, laughter still adorning her features.

Charlotte’s eyes snapped to her, cheeks flaming, heart thudding into the pit of her stomach.